Huge Essie Polish and Gel Couture Haul!

Yesterday I was out and about and did a little mini Essie haul from DK Beauty and I thought it would be fun if I combined that with all the polishes I've hauled over the past few months and showed you guys. If I've already posted about the polish, I'll make sure to link it so you can see swatches if you are interested.

Superstore

In the summer time when the Gel Couture Gala Bolds Collection was released, I scoped out my local Superstore to find them. I picked up my two faves from the 6 polishes that were released in Canada: PR Stunt and Beau-Tie (full post HERE). I'm full on obsessed with PR Stunt. When I swatched them for my blog I couldn't take it off. After wearing it for a week, I really needed to take my polish off and all I could think was "I just want to put this one back on!" Beau-tie I really liked too but it wasn't super summery so I didn't wear it as a full mani at the time. I will definitely be pulling it out this winter. I also grabbed a bottle of Speed Setter this summer so I could test it out. I've been using it for probably 4 months now and I'm a believer! This top coat is so good (my full review and wear test is HERE) And lastly, just last week I was in Superstore and they had their Essie's on sale for $7.99 each and my eye zeroed in on Butler Please. I've featured that polish several times on my blog (HERE & HERE) but I always have to borrow my friend Bailey's bottle. I started an Essie polish Lemming list in my bullet journal and this one sat on there for awhile. I hadn't been able to find it anywhere else, so seeing it on sale at Superstore was my excuse to pick it up! (does anyone else just nonchalantly add a bottle of nail polish to your cart while you are grocery shopping? Just me? Haha)

left to right: PR Stunt, Beau-Tie, Butler Please and Speed Setter

Gift from Friends

If you caught my birthday post this year then you'll know my friend Bree sent me this polish for my birthday. My jaw dropped when I opened the package! It's one that I've wanted for about 2 years but couldn't find anywhere. Somehow Bree tracked it down and it's so beautiful! (full post HERE)

Pilates Hottie

At the very beginning of September, my husband flew to Chicago since he was a groomsmen in a friend's wedding. He spent a day shopping and exploring in Chicago and texted me and asked if there was anything I wanted him to pick up for me. I had been so sad that Canada didn't get the full Gala Bolds Collection so I immediately was like "YES! Get me Front Page Worthy!" I also loved the swatches I had seen of Wearing Hue so I also asked him to grab that one for me. I met him in the U.S. a week later for the wedding and he gave me the two polishes he had picked up, but Wearing Hue was wrong and he had accidentally grabbed me Fairy Tailor. It was an honest mistake since the Ulta he went to had the polishes labelled wrong. Luckily we had a bit of time before our flight home, so I found an Ulta and exchanged it. They didn't have a bottle of Wearing Hue so I got the new Gel Couture Platinum Grade topcoat instead. I already did a wear test on it, but the photo's I took for the post didn't work out! I need to be able to show you the day by day breakdown with photo evidence, so I'll re-do that test and post soon! (Front Page Worthy post HERE)

left: Gel Couture Platinum Grade top coat
right: Front Page Worthy

Basically whenever friends are in the U.S., I check and see if they can buy me polish (haha). Canada didn't get the Gel Couture Holiday Collection so when my friend Bailey was in America in October, I got her to grab me a couple polishes. Out of the ones they had there, I really wanted Jade to Measure, Diamond in the Cuff and It-Pearl (full swatch and review HERE)

left to right: Jade to Measure, Diamond in the Cuff and It-Pearl

And because Bailey is the sweetest, she got me the other two holiday collection GC's that Ulta had (Amethyst Noir and Gold Gilding), as well as a bottle of Essie Naturally Clean nail polish remover as an early Christmas gift. So nice! I've never seen that polish remover in Canada, so that was a fun little surprise. (swatch and review of those two GC's HERE). The red polish that's also included in this little haul was also from Bailey. She texted me early in the summer saying she was at Shopper's Drug Mart and they had a Gel Couture polish called Beauty Marked for $2.99 and did I want it? I didn't even know what color it was, I just knew I didn't own it, so I texted back YES! I'm glad I did because it's such a perfect red (full post HERE).

Dk Beauty

DK Beauty is now my go-to place for Essie polishes in Lethbridge. I'm able to buy Essie polishes at the professional price so it makes it a lot more affordable for me to pick up so many Essie's! I always check here first and if they don't have the polish I want, then I'll look around elsewhere. A bunch of these were polishes I always see on Insta but didn't own myself like Nothing Else Metals, Splash of Grenadine and BBF Best Boyfriend. I grabbed Mamba because I had never seen it before and it looked like a really different browny-peach nude (I'm thinking it's going to make a great comparison for Suit and Tied from the Winter Collection). I also picked up a bottle of Matte About You because mine was finally all out. And in the Spring when I came back from New York inspired to wear nail art more often, I started to realize that not all top coats are created equal when it comes to applying them over nail art! My faves weren't cutting and just made the design smear, so I went to my ECC girls and asked them their fave top coat for nail art. Most said Essie Gel Setter. I didn't like this polish for regular mani's (full review HERE) but I was willing to pick up a bottle and give it a shot for nail art. My girls were right! This one is great for nail art designs, so now I have a bottle in my collection and that's what I use it for. Of course I also had to grab my fave Wild Nude polishes because that collection was the best ever.

left to right: Gel Setter, Nothing Else Metals, Splash of Grenadine, Mamba, BBF Best Boyfriend, Wild Nude, Without a Stitch, Winning Streak and Matte About You topcoat

Yesterday while at DK Beauty, I picked up another bottle of Speed Setter and two bottles of the original Gel Couture top coat because they are both my FAVE top coats. I'm paranoid Essie is going to discontinue the OG Gel couture top coat so I'm stocking up! I also came across this gorgeous pale pink that's full of shimmer called Pink-a-Boo. I couldn't leave without getting it. I'm almost done testing out top coats (unless there's others you'd be curious to see like No Chips Ahead?) so then I'll switch gears and start testing out base coats. I grabbed a bottle of Grow Stronger because it intrigued me. My nails are stronger than they once were but they could use more strength, so I'm excited to see how that one works. If there's any other Essie bases you'd like to see me test, let me know! They had First Base, Color Correcting Primer (@chroma_nails always uses it), 3-way Glaze and others. I also needed a new striping brush for nail art so I grabbed this Akzentz one that was a little nicer than the one I previously had. I hope it's easier to use!

Mani Monday package from Essie Canada:

I wasn't going to include any Essie PR in this haul, but yesterday I came home from shopping and this sweet little package from Essie Canada was on my door step. I wanted to share because there was a bottle of Front Page Worthy and Sizzling Hot from the Gala Bolds that weren't released in Canada in there! When I went to nailpolishcanada.com, they had Front Page Worthy, Sizzling Hot, V.I.Please and Inside Scoop, so they are available in Canada now guys! Still no Wearing Hue though. There was also Bubbles Only, a deep red Gel Couture that I will definitely be trying out this Winter and another GC top coat (Love! I'm really stocked up now!) It's so funny that I waited years to pick up Butler Please, finally decided to buy it last week and then Essie included it in my box this week. Now It's always good to have a backup of beautiful shades though! That pale shade is called Adore-a-Ball. I'm all about nude shades and my friend Laurie wore this recently and it was so pretty, I can't wait to try it.

All right, that's my huge haul from the last 6 months! I'm probably going to have another big haul soon since I desperately want more of the Gel Couture holiday collection (the salon releases). I tried ordering them from head2toebeauty.com but their online store is closed until December 4th. I've been waiting until then but I recently discovered they are cheaper on TransDesign. I'm not sure if they ship to Canada or not, but I may try (nevermind, I just tried! Shipping was going to be $42 for a max of 9 polishes! I'll wait for head2toebeauty.com since their shipping was around $15 flat rate). I also saw some polishes I want on nailpolishcanada.com and remembered last year they did a Black Friday sale, so we'll see. I'm not sure where the extra funds will come from! Haha.

I've been buying quite a few nail polishes, over the last few months as well. Most of them have been Essie, as it's my favourite and they just keep releasing so many lovely polishes. I keep posting pictures on my Instagram of my new polishes and I've reviewed some on my blog already and have lots more planned. I've actually got a picture to post on Instagram this week of my four new Essie polishes I got recently. This is a lovely haul, so many beautiful polishes. always enjoy reading all of your posts.

I'm excited to hear you'll be testing base coats soon! If you're taking requests, I'd love to see your review of Millionails. I've recently started using it, and while I haven't done any real tests, I feel like it doesn't work as well as TLC polishes as a protective basecoat. A controlled comparison between Millionails and a TLC would be awesome.

And speaking of TLC, have you tried any of the new colors yet? I haven't been able to find any blogger reviews or swatches so far and am thisclose to just buying all four myself to try in spite of the price tag!

My most recent haul was the essie advent calendar! I got it today (Dec 7th) so it was massively discounted! It's so exciting to open the doors and get an essie treat! I was hoping the other nail polish brands follow suit next year and make advent calendars but now I'm not so sure - it would be difficult to pick just one!